Michael Smerconish: Our political climate is n-u-t-t-y

THERE'S only one explanation for what happened last Saturday in Tucson:

C-r-a-z-y.

The guy had to be nuts to open fire and shoot a congresswoman in the head and kill a 9-year-old girl.

I'm not prepared to figuratively place his semiautomatic weapon in the hands of a talk-radio host or cable TV presenter. But that doesn't mean the climate in which this occurred is irrelevant. A national conversation about the context of this crime shouldn't require a causal connection between hate speech and violent acts.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik tried to start such a discussion when he said, "When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous."

He was quickly derided as a "liberal" and a "Democrat."

Anyone who doubts that we have a problem with incivility in this country needs to read the posts that accompany news stories about this tragedy. The dead girl was Christina Green. Her mother gave an interview to MSNBC in which she implored "stop the violence, stop the hatred."

Beneath a story on the interview at Politico.com, and attached to countless other reports on the shooting, was this sort of back and forth:

"Liberals need to stop the hatred? Wrong, my friend! We all need to stop the hatred. Fox News is a huge purveyor of hatred!"

"MSNBC is by far the most hateful channel I have ever come across. Management should be proud. I am so done with MSNBC."

"Please show me a single incidence when Move On used a rifle sight in a graphic or advocated a second amendment solution."

"Conservatives have learned nothing. They continue to thrive on hate. No matter who this person was, the country has awakened to the hideous Palin [crowd] and the cancer they are to our society."

"MSNBC has the most hate rhetoric I have ever seen. They are terrorist against the American people. This shooter says he is a Communist, Van Jones admits he's a Communist, Obama buddy and MSNBC is Obama's mouth piece."

"It's disappointing that Republican leaders condemn the violence but are afraid to publicly condemn and risk offending those profiting from the inflammatory rhetoric which contributed to this, and many other recent tragedies."

The comments were sickening but not surprising, each end of the political spectrum seeking to gain advantage from the tragedy.